Petrol and diesel vehicles rank as one of our least successful inventions. That’s because they emit a vast amount of greenhouse gas. Moreover, their ‘oil well to energy’ efficiency is a paltry 20%. With the other 80% lost through oil extraction, refinement, transport, evaporation, and engine heat, we clearly need an alternative energy source. Hence why we ask the question: Which is better, battery power or hydrogen for cars?
Battery Power or Hydrogen for Electric Vehicles
Electric cars currently outperform gasoline and hydrogen ones in terms of energy efficiency by a large margin. In fact, hydrogen’s ‘well to wheel’ is only marginally better than petrol or diesel.
This raises the question why the battery power or hydrogen debate rages on. The Conversation website thinks the balance could shift if we stopped using fossil fuel to produce the hydrogen.
It optimistically predicts a ‘zero-emission pathway if we could extract and treat water before ‘cracking’ it at commercial scale. After that, we would still need to compress / liquefy it before we could transport it economically for distribution though.
More Major Challenges Ahead for Hydrogen
Each step in a process adds to the overall cost. Hydrogen technology still has a long way to go to compete with simple, direct use of electric vehicle batteries. However, perhaps the final clincher to the debate over battery power or hydrogen energy is grid power.
The Conversation assessed the energy cost of converting all of Australia’s cars to electric. Those 14 million light vehicles would consume about 37 terawatt-hours of electricity annually requiring 15% more capacity. “But if this same fleet were converted to run on hydrogen,” it says “we would need more than four times the amount.”
That roughly 157 million terawatt-hours a year would entail a 63% increase in Australian electricity generation. So for now at least, it seems case closed to us. Batteries still rule supreme.
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Preview Image: BMW “Bi-Fueled” Hydrogen / Gasoline V12 Internal Combustion Engine
